Irked by Bangladeshi male workers’ strike and leaving jobs violating contracts, employers in Romania are now interested in recruiting skilled female workers from the readymade garment sector in Bangladesh.
They even agreed to pay the airfare for the female workers as they might not be able to pay the high cost of moving to that country, Kefayet Ullah, deputy secretary of the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, told The Daily Star after his recent visit to Romania.
Kefayet Ullah and Masudul Kabir, commercial councillor of Bangladesh Embassy in France, visited Romania between November 30 and December 4 to see how the Bangladeshi workers are doing there.
Recently, around 200 Bangladeshi workers of a garment factory in Romania went on a one-week strike demanding pay hike. Earlier, many workers left their jobs and went to nearby European countries violating their job contracts. This irritated their employers.
Since the beginning of manpower export to Romania in January last year, through the initiative of a recruitment agency, around 800 workers found jobs mainly in the garment and construction sectors there. But over 400 workers left their jobs and moved to countries neighbouring Romania.
The official said during their visit to Romania they found that the employers were complying with the job contracts the workers signed but the workers demanded salary hike, saying the wage they get is not good enough.
The minimum monthly salary for a sewing machine operator is $300, excluding free food, accommodation and health care. The salary, however, ranges between $500 and $600 depending on positions and skills, Kefayet said.
“On behalf of our government, we recommend that the minimum salary should be $400,” he said.
They are now interested in female workers as there are skilled female workers in the garment sector of Bangladesh and they think women would not flee, he said.
“We said if they employ female workers, they would have to pay the airfare, which is around Tk 75,000,” the official said. The cost of migration has been set at Tk 2 lakh.
He said there are many skilled female garment workers and there should be government-level agreements to send female workers to the East European country.
Romania has shortage of workers as many of its citizens are moving and have moved to West European countries like England and Germany for higher wages.
Kefayet said Romania is a great opportunity for Bangladesh because this is the first European country which is hiring workers from Bangladesh. If everything goes well, Bangladesh could send around 1 lakh workers to Romania in the next five years, he added.
“Once we make a reputation, a new era will emerge in overseas employment sector for Bangladesh,” Kefayet said, adding that inflow of remittance will increase significantly if skilled workers are employed in European countries.
“We asked our workers there to return to Bangladesh if they do not like the jobs and the pay and not to destroy the employment opportunity of other Bangladeshis,” he said.
Categories: Bangla, Bangladesh, Bangladesh News, Bangladesh Politics, Daily Bangladesh News, News, Politics
